Hundreds march against Wal-Mart coming to DC

On the 31st of May, several hundred people marched from 801 NJ Ave, one of Wal-Marts proposed DC locations, to 701 8th st, where Wal-Mart has a DC lobbyng office. The march included a float protraying Mayor Gray and Wal-Mart in bed together, with a sign saying “someone’s getting screwed.”

Video Video of the march and float protraying the Mayor in bed with Wal-Mart

Audio Three of the speakers from the rally in front of Wal-Mart’s lobbying headquarters

Mayor Gray in bed with Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart discriminates against women

When the march arrived at Wal-Marts lobbying headquarters, speakers included union organizers and Wal-Mart employees. After the speakers a contingent marched on the door to deliver demands made on Wal-Mart and was initially refused entry. After a flurry of negotiations, Wal-Mart’s lobbyists or their security team thought better of trying to hold the doors against so many people and permitted one person to enter with the demands and hand them off to a Wal-Mart staffer.

Union organizers emphasized that at this point, with Wal-Mart not making any serious offers of better pay and benefits, their campaign is to prevent Wal-Mart from opening in DC at all.They pointed out that normal retailers that allow unions create jobs that allow people to feed and house their families, but union-busting Wal-Mart does NOT!

Photos, video from Frederick G8 March #1

At about 2:30PM on the 18th of May, activists took to the streets of Frederick, MD to opppose the G8 Summit in nearby Camp David

Video Clips of the march

About an hour before this march, there was a report of another 50 people in Thurmont, MD, about as close to Camp David as it is possible to get.

PEPCO manhandles, expels small stockholders from stockholders meeting

On the 18th of May, supporters of OurDC who own PEPCO stock attempted to attend the corporation’s stockholders meeting. This is a basic right of anyone holding stock in a corporation. All but a few were delayed, shunted to an overflow room, then pushed and shoved by security guards and cops before being removed from the building.

Video Video coverage

One of the excluded stockholders owns 1,500 shares of PEPCO stock inherited from her grandmother. One of the few stockholders to get in reported that the meeting room had been pre-packed with people who did NOT appear to be stockholders, probably PEPCO employees, so as to exclude actual stockholders.

While OurDC’s stockholders and other small stockholders were effectively detained in the overflow room, hundreds of protesters assembled outside, demanding entry to the building and blocking 9th st to passing traffic. When ther stockholders emerged, they told tales of being pushed, shoved, manhandled and generally assaulted by security guards while in the overflow room. These guards went so far as to threaten stockholders with tresspassing charges for attempting to attend the PEPCO stockholders meeting!

Not surprisingly, massive pay increases for PEPCO CEO Joe Rigsby and other senior executives were approved, even as PEPCO is asking for a $42M rate hike, even as PEPCO “pays” the highest negative tax rate (taxes minus subsidies) and has the lowest consumer satisfaction of any corporation in the DC area.

This Weekend: G8 protests in Frederick, then busses to Chicago for NATO

This weekend, NATO is meeting in Chicago and the G-8 is meeting at Camp David. The decision of Greek voters to reject the bailout and austerity package will be high on the agenda at the G-8 and maybe at NATO as well.

AUDIO PROMO WSQT Radio’s audio promo for the G8 and NATO protests

At both summits, the rich and powerful will conspire and plot to further exploit people around the world.Corporate lobbyists will hobnob with presidents and prime ministers while police with barricades and riot shields demand the public stay away.

In Greece there have suicides over evictions, now Norm Rousseau in Oregon, facing the eviction of his family by Wells Fargo Bank, has also committed suicide. Is THIS the future we want, or do we want something better?

There will be protests in Frederick, MD against the G8, and absolutely HUGE protests in Chicago against the NATO summit. Action begins in Fredrick, MD with a People’s Summit Friday morning followed by a march at 2:30 PM against the G-8. There will be further protests all day on Saturday. There will be buses leaving Frederick for Chicago so people can pursue the same wealthy gangsters from Frederick to Chicago. Originally the G-8 was going to be held in Chicago alongside the NATO summit, but they moved it to Camp David near Frederick after reports that 50,000 people could descend on Chicago to protest a joint summit.

We’ve already kicked the G-8 out of Chicago. Now let’s kick them out of Frederick and then kick NATO out of Chicago! If the Chicago police want to defend the modern day heirs of Al Capone, they risk creating a repeat of the 1968 Democratic National Convention and they know it, so have at it!

US Capitol Police meet “March on Congress” with indiscriminate arrests

On the 15th of May, about 25 activists marched on the US Capitol to demand the that the public get the same open access to Congress that lobbyists seem to have. One person carried out a civil disobediance demanding to enter the building, but he was NOT the only person arrested.

Video Video of the civil disobediance-and the NON civil disobediance arrests

Audio Report Radio Mix provided by WSQT Radio

Banner on the Crapitol steps[/caption]

Arrested in a civil disobediance

Arrested on the sidewalk while NOT engaged in civil disobediance!

After the civil disobediance, the Capitol Police repeatedly re-set their perimeter, reading out the three warnings for a mass arrest in rapid sucession each time. At no time were protesters informed where the zone Capitol Police were declaring off-limits to protest ended.

After protesters had retreated to the sidewalk to get out of the moving perimeters, police began lunging onto the sidewalk to arrest the remaining protesters. I do not know the total number of arrests, as I had to take off when cops advanced in my direction.

While all this was going on, a crew with gallery passes was supposed to break away from the protest, enter the building with no personal belongings, and carry out an unspecified action from the galleries as Congress returns to session today. I do not know if any of them were able to break away in time. Any updates?

Thousands protest Bank of America board meeting in Charlotte, NC

On the 9th of May a crowd estimated as being at least 1,000 people and by some to be as many as 3,000 descended on Bank of America’s corporate board meeting in Charlotte, N Carolina. Youtube has been making many videos of these proests “unavailable” so we have force-downloaded them and reposted them elsewhere as downloadable files:

Downloadable video Drummers hold 5th and College against the police

Downloadable video Bob Kincaid reports back from INSIDE the Bank of America shareholder meeting

Audio by Pirate Radio Station WSQT Audio Report on Charlotte BofA board meeting protests

Transcript of WSQT Radio report:

(Intro-compilation of mainstream media sound clips)

On the 9th of May, thousands of people marched in Charlotte, North Caolina to Bank of America’s board meeting. Marchers were furious with activites of Bank of America ranging from the foreclosures they got from Countrywide, to their greedy acceptance of a taxpayer-funded bailout, to their continuing financial support for mountaintop removal coal mining.

The Charlotte Police declared the protest an “extraordinary event” suppsoedly granting them extraordinary powers, but were unable to keep marchers from taking over the streets.

Here’s what it sounded like at the intersection of 5th and College in Charlotte as protesters held the street over the objections of police:

(clip-drums)

The police admitted a week or two ago that they didn’t want to reveal their tactics to organizers of the upcoming protests against the Democratic National Convention. Anyway, thousands were able to march all the way to the Bank of America Stadium. All the Bank of America stockholders had to wait behind police barricades and cops just like delegates to the IMF and World Bank meetings. About 100 of those stockholders were small stockholders supporting distressed homeowners and/or opposing BofA’s coal investments.

(music)

Here’s what is sounded like INSIDE Bank of America’s board meeting as protesting stockholder sick of forecloures opened up on them:

(clip)

Here’s what Bob Kinkaid had to say about the garbage coming from Bank of America executives about their investments in filthy coal after coming out of the board meeting

(Tape-report from inside BofA board meeting)

I’d like to see Bank of America do the right thing to, but they’ve got a hell of a long way to go.Bank of America has done a lot of truly awful things and made a lot of beefs on the street in the process. Here’s what a veteran of the Iraq War who lives whers coal is mined asked of Bank of America

(clip)

Here’s another statement opposing Bank of America’s continued support for mountaintop removal coal mining:

(clip)

Bank of America, thousands just showed you what they think of foreclosing on people homes and then foreclosing on our whole planet with outrages like dirty coal and destroying whole communities with things like mountaintop remocal coal! Were you watching as protesters staged a symbolic boxing match between a suit-and-tie executive of your bank and a woman whose home you foreclosed on? You should have been, because you were defeated in that match. If Bank of America keeps begging for taxpayer money to fund huge executive pay packages, keeps throwing people out of their homes, and investing in destroying our good Earth, next year the knockout might not be a symbolic one!

DARTT protests at Italian Embassy in solidarity with imprisoned beagle liberators

On the 8th of May, DC area animal rights activists descended on the Italian Embassy to demand the closure of the Green Hill breeding facility, a laboratory supply breeder that sends 250 beagle puppies a month to vivisection labs. Activists also demanded the release of 12 activists in Italy who stormed the breeder and rescued 30 beagles on April 28.

video Video showing both the beagle liberation and the protest in DC

On the 28th of April, a protest in Italy against Green Hill suddenly morphed into a raid, with activists storming the grounds and rescuing 30 beagles. They climbed over fences, opened the kennels and liberated the dogs. This was not an ALF night raid, but an in-your-face invasion and rescue of animals being shipped to torture in broad daylight and in public.

Most of the beagles made it to safety and were removed from the area before the police could catch their rescuers, but 12 activists and a few beagles were captured. The activsts are currently at a prison in Brescia, and could face charges up to robbery for this beagle liberation.

Activists at the Italian Embassy on May 8 were demanding that all these charges be dropped, all 12 activists be released, and every last dog be removed from Green Hill breeders and the facility be shut down.

Green Hill, like Huntingdon Life Sciences, has been caught shaking and punching beagle puppies to “discipline” them. Who are those who shake and punch their victims to make money off them to accuse anyone of “robbery?”

Here is the press release issued by DARTT before the Embassy protest:

WASHINGTON, DC, May 8, 2012, at 11:30am, DC area activists will protest at the Italian Embassy at 3000
Whitehaven St, NW Washington, DC 20008 to demand that the charges against Italian activists be
dropped, that vivisection is replaced with non‐animal models, and that the Italian government listens to
its citizens and shut down Green Hill breeders.

Background: On April 28th Italian activists rescued 30 beagles from the Green Hill breeding facility that
supplies up to 250 beagles every month to vivisectionists for cruel tests. Some of the rescued beagles
were puppies, others were pregnant mothers and some had already had their vocal cords ripped out.
The rescuers climbed fences, opened kennels and liberated as many beagles as they could. They passed
the pups and moms over the fence and rushed as many as possible to safety. 12 of these
compassionate people were arrested during the rescue. Thankfully, most of the beagles made it to
safety, but authorities managed to recapture some unfortunate victims.
Vivisection cruelties go beyond the regular torture of the tests. Undercover video footage shows beagle
puppies being punched and shaken by lab workers. All animals used for vivisection suffer. All animals
have the same inherent right to live free from human exploitation and other intentional harms.

Day 11 of death fast against fossil fuels outside Canadian Embassy

Sat, May 5 marked the 11th day of a “Death Fast” by a man using the name “Start Loving” outside the Canadian Embassy.

Video Video Interview w Mr Loving

Although Canada is best known among environmentalists for the Alberta Tar Sands mining, Mr Loving pointed out that it was Canada, not the US, that sabotaged the Copenhage Climate Conference. His death fast is against not only the tar sands mining and Keystone XL pipeline, but ALL man-made CO2 and methane emissions

He is demanding that the total cost of fossil fuel use and methane emissions associated with same be included in the market price of the fuels. His proposal is a $200 per ton carbon tax, increasing $200 per ton per year, assessed at the wellhead, mine, or port of entry.

Think about Mr Loving and his hunger strike as you continue to pour $4 a gas with an estimated production+profit+externalized climate cost of $16 a gallon into that 25 gallon tank on your big oversized SUV. Think about him as you look for a new, larger house with a giant lawn and a giant air conditioning and swimming pool pump power/water bill. Those A/C bills are going to go up as the climate changes!

300 mile “Sam’s Ride” for Peace arrives at White House

On the 5th of May, a group of bicycle riders arrived in front of the White House after completing a 300 mile ride from Raleigh, North Carolina to DC. Both the ride and the rally were to protest the wars and drone killings that have continued under Obama.

Video 2 1/2 min Video of the closing rally

Audio Audio by WSQT Radio-contents:
Intro
Sam
Michael McPherson-Vets for Peace, UFPJ
David Swanson
song

One of the speakers at the rally spoke of getting a fundraising pitch from Obama’s campaign and explaining why they would not donate a single dime. Both the wars and the drone assasinations were cited as reasons to withold support from Obama’s re-election campaign.

Occupy DC storms building holding DC offices of NYSE

On the 4th of May, Occupy DC stormed the lobby Market Place, 801 Penn Ave, a building housing the DC offices of the NYSE.

Video: Recorded Ustream video from @occupycarlisle

AudioLouder than Hell! Occupy DC Raids DC offices of NYSE by WSQT Radio

The video froze up as the person running the Livestream entered the building. The good folks at WSQT Radio recovered the soundtrack from the corrupted video and added a musical intro and outro.

Some of the Occupiers were barechested as they entered the building. A Mic Check announced that the action was in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street, which faced yet another round of police aggression on May 1.

This is the same building that USED to contain the offices of HLS customer Sanofi-Aventis. Security guards responded quickly but not quickly enough to keep them from getting yet another lobby invasion, this time targetting the DC offices of the NYSE.

This was a quick action with only minutes of advance notice. Cops were late to arrive, with Occupy DC safely exiting the building as the first two cops showed up but did not engage.

Just because the IMF meetings have come and gone does NOT mean Occupy DC is done putting the “Occupy” in Occupy DC by storming the castles of corporate power!